Higher Education

The colleges and universities in the Ann Arbor region are the rock solid institutional foundation for human capital in the area. The measure of their impact on the business community is enormous.

Anchored by the University of Michigan, the schools collectively educate, train, and graduate thousands annually. The result is a year-round pool of young, bright, capable people looking for job opportunities in high-tech fields where they can make a contribution. Fields like yours.

The workforce in the Ann Arbor region is as well-educated as any in the country. In fact, in a recent national study, Ann Arbor is ranked as the smartest city in the nation. The American City Business Journals said the city’s proportion of residents with bachelor’s degrees and beyond – 69.2% - outranked 223 small communities. Ann Arbor won out over other the best college towns in America. [See sidebar]

The region’s schools – from a local community college to a world-class university – are the economic engine and the accelerator of innovation for business. Here’s a snapshot of the colleges and universities and the unique ways they enhance the innovative, technology-based business community.

Ann Arbor is Top Small City in Brainpower

A new study by bizjournals.com gives Ann Arbor a No. 1 brainpower rating among the nation's 223 small communities. The category covers all places that have 50,000 to 100,000 residents who were 25 or older as of 2000.

College towns dominate the rankings of small communities. The four runners-up are Newton, Mass., home of Boston College; Boulder, Colo., University of Colorado; Berkeley, Calif., University of California; and Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University.

Bizjournals.com analyzed Census data for the educational levels of adults in nearly 16,000 cities, towns and villages, boroughs and unincorporated areas. Communities were ranked in three population categories, based on a formula that rewards places with heavy concentrations of college graduates.

The rankings reflect each community's collective brainpower, which is tied to its residents' abilities to innovate, create, compete - and make money.